The Italian Morellato Group, a leading jewellery and watch retailer and manufacturer with its brands Bluespirit, D'Amante, Cleor and Noélie and over 400 jewellery stores across Italy and in France, is acquiring the German-based jewellery company CHRIST GROUP with its three retail brands CHRIST since 1863, VALMANO and BRINCKMANN & LANGE.


Morellato Group acquires CHRIST GROUP from the financial investor 3i, effective on 1 February 2023. 3i had acquired CHRIST nine years ago from the beauty retailer group Douglas. With its more than 2000 employees, CHRIST achieved sales of more than 410 million euros in the last financial year.


Together, Morellato Group and CHRIST GROUP will have a distribution network of more than 620 stores in Italy, France, Germany, and Austria and combined revenue of nearly 800 million euros. Both the stationary and the online channel, as well as production and wholesale, are to be further expanded in the coming years.


Together with Italian law firm Orsingher Ortu, Hengeler Mueller advises the Morellato Group on this transaction. The team is led by partners Daniel Wiegand and Hans-Jörg Ziegenhain (both M&A) and includes partners Henning Hilke (Finance), Thomas Lang (Real Estate), Hendrik Bockenheimer (Employment, all Frankfurt), Wolfgang Kellenter (IP), Dirk Uwer (Public Law, both Düsseldorf), Sarah Milde (Antitrust), Gunther Wagner (Tax, both Munich), counsels Marco Mâallem (Real Estate, Frankfurt), Matthias Rothkopf, Andrea Schlaffge (both IP) and Anja Balitzki (Antitrust, all Düsseldorf) as well as associates Florian Dendl, Lena Böhringer, Christoph Roth (all M&A, Munich), Sebastian Adam (Tax, Frankfurt), Marina Kederoglu (Public Law, Düsseldorf), Mathias Menzel (Finance), Jean Friedrich Härtelt, Dzmitry Krupadziorau, Christian Voigt, Moritz Jacob (all Real Estate, all Frankfurt), Marcel Preuß (Real Estate, Berlin), Kim Josefine Weisser (IP, Düsseldorf) and Andreas Kaletsch (Employment, Frankfurt).